Amsterdão é o
exemplo típico de uma cidade que chegou ao ponto limite de
capacidade de absorpção e integração no espaço físico
dísponivel / ao limite de capacidade de tolerância dos habitantes
locais perante um Turismo de Massas Globalizado e Predador.
A hostilidade
explícita no trânsito de bicicletas perante a inexperiência de
milhares e milhares de Turistas é evidente. A irritação na
partilha das ciclovias, com as muito mais poderosas na velocidade e
presença física, “scooters”, é evidente.
Este artigo, embora
seja dedicado exclusivamente ao fenómeno e evolução futura de
Amsterdão como cidade das bicicletas, é também uma ilustração
que as cidades possuem um eco-sistema social e humano dependente da
quantidade de
pessoas que utilizam o espaço público dísponivel.
Uma
procura de qualidade
na gestão dos factores, torna-se impossível quando a fronteira do
equilíbrio desses factores constituintes desse eco-sistema é
ultrapassada.
Foi
isso que aconteceu em Barcelona . É isso que está a acontecer em
Lisboa.
OVOODOCORVO
–-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bike
jams and unwritten rules: a day with Amsterdam's new 'bicycle mayor'
Rush-hour
bike jams, speeding scooters, ignorant tourists … Amsterdam may be
the world’s busiest cycling capital but it is no two-wheeled
paradise. ‘Bicycle mayor’ Anna Luten is working to smooth
conflict and export the lessons learned
Nick
Van Mead in Amsterdam
Thursday
11 August 2016 11.41 BST
Amsterdam’s
new cycling mayor, Anna Luten, barely slows as she nears a junction
by one of the city’s central canals. Cyclists are approaching fast
from six directions – bells tinging, hair flowing stylishly in the
light breeze (no one here wears a helmet). As I catch up the
crisscross of bikes almost looks synchronised, as if local riders
navigating the narrow, winding streets of the historic centre have an
innate understanding of their complex flows and patterns.
Cycling
is something the capital has become world famous for over the past 40
years and a whole generation of Amsterdammers have grown up so used
to cycling that they have learned the skills necessary to
effortlessly go with the flow – to be hyper-aware of their
surroundings yet appear natural, says Anna. Like most Dutch children
she cycled to school every day, helmet-free, and hasn’t looked back
since her stabilisers came off.
But
while Amsterdam is synonymous with bikes and the ubiquitous Omafiets
step-through roadster, it is less of a cycling nirvana than smaller
Dutch cities like Utrecht and Groningen. We are touring the city in
the middle of the day when the traffic is light. Come back in rush
hour – or at a location popular with tourists unfamiliar with the
city’s unwritten cycling rules – and it doesn’t work so well,
she says.
There
are so many bikes – an estimated 1 million for a population of 1.1
million – that rush-hour bike jams frequently force cyclists to
stop at every junction on major routes into the centre. “For
Amsterdammers it’s frustrating,” says Anna. “Some parts of the
city are just too busy – there are too many bikes, too many
scooters, too many cars, too many pedestrians. There’s no space. It
is a big source of conflict.”
The
complex flows of cycling and pedestrians near the IJ waterfront
behind Central Station
Indeed,
while bikes account for an estimated 68% of journeys made in the city
centre, they are allocated just 11% of infrastructure space, with
cars getting 44%. There are further flashpoints around the relative
lack of cycle parking (“Tourists love taking photos of bikes
chained to canal bridges but the council hates it,” says Anna) and
the use of bike lanes by scooters, which are heavier, wider and
faster than bicycles. Moves to ban scooters from cycle paths
nationally are currently going through parliament in the Hague –
but just as that issue nears a possible conclusion, the introduction
of electric bikes which can reach speeds of 30mph is threatening to
create new problems.
Many
parents think cycling is dangerous, and when those kids hit 16 they
get scooters, not bicycles
Maud
de Vries
Smoothing
out these conflicts by improving communication between cycling
groups, the council, city planners and other residents is where the
new bicycle mayor comes in. The idea grew out of a Cycle Hack
proposal by advocacy group CycleSpace to build on the success of the
city’s night mayor Mirik Milan, who has won plaudits for navigating
the tricky path between the city’s ever-expanding night economy and
the residents and officials who would sometimes rather it didn’t
exist. After 17 video applications and a public vote to narrow the
field, a jury of city officials and bike advocates last month chose
Anna as his cycling counterpart. Unlike other cities which may have
bicycle commissioners, chief bicycle officers or cycle tsars,
Amsterdam’s ‘bicycle mayor’ – although unelected – is
independent.
But
how difficult can it really be to sell cycling in the world’s
busiest biking capital? “It is harder than it sounds,” laughs
Anna, who juggles her voluntary mayoral responsibilities with those
of her day job as a brand manager for Giant’s LIV range for female
cyclists. “Cycling is so normal for us that it becomes boring and
we forget about it, we neglect it. It’s not an identity like it is
in other countries and cities – it’s just the way people get
around – so, while we are ahead of a lot of other cities we still
have to work at cycling to maintain our position, and to improve for
future generations. At the moment, many people in Amsterdam think
‘because we ride a bike we own the roads’. We like to think we go
with the flow, but sometimes we are actually quite rude. There are
almost too many cyclists and bikes. If it goes on like this people
will stop cycling because it won’t be safe.”
Anna
takes me to Kinkerstraat, a shopping street to the west of the centre
where local retailers are up in arms over work to ban cars and
introduce a wider cycle lane. “Even in Amsterdam, shopkeepers think
their customers come by car but that’s not true,” says Anna.
“It’s stuck in their minds and we need to change that.”
Then
it’s on to Mahlerplein, a state-of-the-art cycle parking facility
in the southern financial district complete with a travelator and
space for 3,000 bikes. Cycle parking is such an issue that the city
is building facilities for in excess of 30,000 bikes near the central
station by 2030, including underwater parking beneath the IJ
waterfront and more on floating manmade islands.
Much
of Amsterdam’s road and parking space remains allocated to cars.
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Much
of Amsterdam’s road and parking space remains allocated to cars.
Photograph: Timothy Clary/AFP/Getty Images
The
issue of how to get cyclists from central Amsterdam – across the IJ
– to the fast-developing suburbs to the north is another potential
source of conflict. Unless they want to detour a few miles east via
the Schellingwouderbrug crossings, the only way across the water for
cyclists is by ferry – free and picturesque maybe, but time
consuming for commuters. A new tunnel looks too expensive given the
city’s marshy soil, while talk of a new bridge has angered harbour
operators who fear the lucrative cruise industry could lose out.
And
not everyone in Amsterdam shares Anna’s lifelong connection with
the bicycle. Increasing numbers of people living out in the city’s
suburbs or in areas like Nieuw West with high immigrant populations
do not have a history of cycling and often drive their children to
school. “Many of these parents think cycling is dangerous, and when
those kids hit 16 they get scooters, not bicycles,” says Maud de
Vries, co-founder of the CycleSpace group which runs the Cycle Mayor
programme. “Cycling gives children such a sense of freedom – and
of course it’s great for health and happiness and stress – but it
is not seen as cool in some areas and we need to work on that.”
How
Amsterdam became the bicycle capital of the world
Read
more
“These
are big problems,” says Anna. “At other times it’s minor –
like the new trend for fat wheels means they don’t fit in old bike
racks. Normally, if you want to get something changed it is hard to
be heard as an individual, but now people are coming to me with
problems and I have the ears of those in power. I don’t have an
opinion or a solution for everything, but it is about communication
and city hall have been very receptive. We need to keep innovating or
we’ll fall behind.” That innovation may take the form of covered
bike lanes allowing business people to cycle to work in the rain
without ruining their suits, or new signs to show tourists where to
find safe cycling streets. “The willingness to experiment is key,”
she adds.
Next
CycleSpace plans to export the concept of an independent bicycle
mayor to 25 cities around the world – with interest so far from
Johannesburg, Cape Town, Beijing, Chicago and Warsaw – and a
congress planned in the Netherlands for 2017 to share ideas and
knowledge.
“I
don’t know if we’re still number one, or if Copenhagen is ahead,
but to me that rivalry isn’t important so long as each city is a
good place to cycle,” adds Anna. “Cycling has the power to
transform. I dream and hope that in 20 or 50 years from now there
could be more cities like Amsterdam, where cycling is so normal and
accepted that we’re not really aware of it.”
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